Music festival
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
Music festival
Heading to sleep, night two of a music festival. My little girls snoring away.
Lots of examples of how I used to be all around me.
It's so good to be sober, to wake in the mornings fresh and feeling good. To really hear the music. To join in the fun at the jam tent and learn some new things. To see the reminders of why I choose sobriety. To be here with my friends and my family and be able to enjoy the weekend camping and playing and hearing music - but not need to drink to enjoy it!
Good night everyone... Sober is better.
Lots of examples of how I used to be all around me.
It's so good to be sober, to wake in the mornings fresh and feeling good. To really hear the music. To join in the fun at the jam tent and learn some new things. To see the reminders of why I choose sobriety. To be here with my friends and my family and be able to enjoy the weekend camping and playing and hearing music - but not need to drink to enjoy it!
Good night everyone... Sober is better.
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Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 403
Have fun! I can't really go anywhere yet. Tomorrow, I'm going to a family event for kids. Usually I'd have about 4 swigs just to get through the event because I didn't want to be very far from my stash. It's very liberating to know I'll be leaving the house and not counting minutes, trying sneak off to the car, where, incidentally, family has found bottles because I'd forgotten, etc. I can just enjoy myself and not be irritated by the waiting to get back to "enjoy" something hidden in my boot.
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In many years past I'd had never been at something like this without a head full of booze and pot the whole time.
I see a lot of folks still doing that, but I'm having fun and enjoying the experience with my kids and my lady, sober and free. Another sober friend of mine is a fee campsites down with his kids, he's a volunteer for the children's area.
Whereas in past I probably would have spent most of my time drinking around the campsite, I've spent most of my time at music, workshops, swimming in the lake with the kids, talking to people and having a good time.
Turns out, with some good sober time as a foundation, we can still do the things we've enjoyed and - frequently - find we enjoy them even more!
I haven't been plagued with waning to drink... There are plenty of examples all around me that remind me why I don't.
I see a lot of folks still doing that, but I'm having fun and enjoying the experience with my kids and my lady, sober and free. Another sober friend of mine is a fee campsites down with his kids, he's a volunteer for the children's area.
Whereas in past I probably would have spent most of my time drinking around the campsite, I've spent most of my time at music, workshops, swimming in the lake with the kids, talking to people and having a good time.
Turns out, with some good sober time as a foundation, we can still do the things we've enjoyed and - frequently - find we enjoy them even more!
I haven't been plagued with waning to drink... There are plenty of examples all around me that remind me why I don't.
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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Interesting contrast this morning.... As I am enjoying my coffee and a cool morning breeze, two police cruisers and several festival officials have converged on the campsite two down from ours.... There have been two nights of over the top drunkenness and complaints out of that crew and several are now being removed.
Trudgin
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 6,348
Originally Posted by FreeOwl 
Interesting contrast this morning.... As I am enjoying my coffee and a cool morning breeze, two police cruisers and several festival officials have converged on the campsite two down from ours.... There have been two nights of over the top drunkenness and complaints out of that crew and several are now being removed.
Terror, bewilderment, frustration and despair personified.
I too am enjoying early Sunday morning coffee sitting on the deck with a clear head!
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Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
Originally Posted by FreeOwl
Heading to sleep, night two of a music festival. My little girls snoring away.
Lots of examples of how I used to be all around me.
It's so good to be sober, to wake in the mornings fresh and feeling good. To really hear the music. To join in the fun at the jam tent and learn some new things. To see the reminders of why I choose sobriety. To be here with my friends and my family and be able to enjoy the weekend camping and playing and hearing music - but not need to drink to enjoy it!
Good night everyone... Sober is better.
Lots of examples of how I used to be all around me.
It's so good to be sober, to wake in the mornings fresh and feeling good. To really hear the music. To join in the fun at the jam tent and learn some new things. To see the reminders of why I choose sobriety. To be here with my friends and my family and be able to enjoy the weekend camping and playing and hearing music - but not need to drink to enjoy it!
Good night everyone... Sober is better.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
a lot of people spent a lot of this weekend drinking all around me....
some of them were sloppy drunk and fighting and causing drama.
many of them, though, were 'just fine'. But every morning, even the 'just fine's' had campsites littered with bottles and cans. Sure, there were lots of people not drinking at all. I saw them waking up at 6/6:30 like me. Some were out running at sunrise. Some were playing with their children and talking quietly around the coffee pot.
Yet many, many, MANY spent the entire weekend pickled. "Functioning".
I'm grateful to be free of that. I didn't feel like drinking at all this weekend. I didn't feel jealous or glum or upset. I was just glad it wasn't me pouring hundreds of dollars in toxic liquid down my own throat in order to earn a bleary-eyed morning headache that would leave me with no choice but to start drinking again by 8am.
The music was good, my children had a blast, I jammed a little with some fun musicians, learned some things, smiled a lot, got a lot of sun and water time and enjoyed camping with my little girls.
Dear Alcohol: "Good riddance".
some of them were sloppy drunk and fighting and causing drama.
many of them, though, were 'just fine'. But every morning, even the 'just fine's' had campsites littered with bottles and cans. Sure, there were lots of people not drinking at all. I saw them waking up at 6/6:30 like me. Some were out running at sunrise. Some were playing with their children and talking quietly around the coffee pot.
Yet many, many, MANY spent the entire weekend pickled. "Functioning".
I'm grateful to be free of that. I didn't feel like drinking at all this weekend. I didn't feel jealous or glum or upset. I was just glad it wasn't me pouring hundreds of dollars in toxic liquid down my own throat in order to earn a bleary-eyed morning headache that would leave me with no choice but to start drinking again by 8am.
The music was good, my children had a blast, I jammed a little with some fun musicians, learned some things, smiled a lot, got a lot of sun and water time and enjoyed camping with my little girls.
Dear Alcohol: "Good riddance".
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Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
If you had to break it down into percentages, what percent of the people would you guess were heavily drinking and what was the percentage of people who did not drink anything such as yourself? Just curious.
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Originally Posted by thomas11
If you had to break it down into percentages, what percent of the people would you guess were heavily drinking and what was the percentage of people who did not drink anything such as yourself? Just curious.
Marchia in Aeternum
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Georgia
Posts: 11,094
Wow, what a coincidence. Went to a concert Saturday night from a band call A1A...the original and official Jimmy Buffett tribute band. Strangely enough, my almost 80 YO parents started the idea. We all went. Parents, sister, other sister and hub, me. Took a picnic and such. Had a great time. All of us sober. Only a few drunks around. First time I've done that sober.
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Georgia
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Originally Posted by notgonnastoptry
Have fun! I can't really go anywhere yet. Tomorrow, I'm going to a family event for kids. Usually I'd have about 4 swigs just to get through the event because I didn't want to be very far from my stash. It's very liberating to know I'll be leaving the house and not counting minutes, trying sneak off to the car, where, incidentally, family has found bottles because I'd forgotten, etc. I can just enjoy myself and not be irritated by the waiting to get back to "enjoy" something hidden in my boot.
FO - as I was ready the rest of the thread, I imagined what you were going through....and it was refreshing. Thanks for the read.
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